Female leaders from Hawaii’s tourism industry have joined the “$1,000 for 1,000” movement to get Ho‘ola na Pua closer to opening a residential treatment facility for underage victims of sex trafficking.

Hawaii Women in Lodging &Tourism, an offshoot of the Hawaii Lodging &Tourism Association, became Ho‘ola na Pua’s 120th operational donor Monday during a Human Trafficking Awareness Day Walk &Rally held at Bishop Square.

“If 1,000 individuals, businesses, small groups or organizations each pledge $1,000 per year, we will be on our way to securing the estimated $1 million in annual funds needed to sustain the puohuonua (safe place) where these children may begin to heal from their trauma,” said Jessica Munoz, Ho‘ola na Pua president and founder.

Munoz said the organization has leased a 12-acre property on Oahu’s North Shore and is working to transform it and an existing building into Pearl Haven, which will offer 32 beds to sex trafficking victims ages 11 to 18. The program, which will be filled by referrals, will offer sex trafficking victims one to two years of safe housing, on-site schooling and mental health and rehabilitative services, including dance, equine and agricultural therapeutic programs.

“The need is great. We hope to open in the third quarter of 2017,” said Munoz, a nurse practitioner at Pali Momi, who was inspired to create a haven for sex trafficking victims after encountering many in the emergency room.

In the last two years, the organization has raised $950,000 out of the $6 million needed to launch Pearl Haven and fund its first year of operating costs. It has also raised about $120,000 through their “$1,000 for 1,000” movement, which is designed to raise another $1 million annually for operations.

Julie Arigo, chairwoman of Hawaii Women in Lodging &Tourism and general manager of the Waikiki Parc hotel, said female tourism leaders want to increase awareness of sex trafficking, which is victimizing children from Hawaii and elsewhere.

“Sex trafficking has been top of mind for our industry nationally,” Arigo said. “We don’t want it to fall under the radar here. It’s horrible to think that it could be happening in our hotels. We want to do everything that we can to prevent that from occurring.”

Arigo said the visitor industry is working to identify and stop sex traffickers. At the same time, it wants to empower victims by supporting Pearl Haven.

Tammy Bitanga, Ho‘ola na Pua’s community events coordinator, said she wishes a similar program had been available during her teenage years. Bitanga, who grew up in Kailua, said she was recruited at 15 by a pimp, who prostituted her in Waikiki hotel rooms before trafficking her to Alaska.

“I don’t think Waikiki or other parts of the community have improved much in the last 30 years. If anything, the problem has gotten worse,” said Bitanga, who is allowing the Honolulu Star-Advertiser to use her identity to raise awareness about the negative impacts of local sex trafficking.

More support is needed from the community to address the harms of sex trafficking, said Vickie Lemasters, who founded Islands of Hope Dream Center in 2011 to provide rehabilitative services and safe homes for up to four sex trafficking victims at at time.

“People will say, ‘It’s not in our neighborhood,’ but it’s here. Business leaders in the community need to provide more financial support and other assistance for victims. If an owner notices a victim in their business, they need to notify officials. If they notice a pimp, they shouldn’t serve them,” Lemasters said. “I think the community is starting to understand that sex-trafficked women are victims, but it’s been a long road to get here and there is still a long way to go.”

Bitanga said Pearl Haven will expand resources for sex trafficking victims while hopefully speeding their recovery.

“They are going to need years of assistance,” she said. “I’m 50 years old, and I’ve only been out of it for the past 15 years. It’s easy to slip into being abused when you don’t feel that you are worth anything.”

Bitanga said Pearl Haven offers a way “to love sex trafficking victims into healing.”

“They’ve been looked at as criminals, but they aren’t,” she said. “They are our babies, and we have to take care of them.”